About the Book
Exploring Consensual Leadership in Higher Education explores the idea that the nature of academic work is both creative and consensual. Higher education relationships, whether between managers, staff, learners or the public sphere, are at their most effective when rooted in partnership, teamwork, collaboration and collegiality. The term ‘consensual’ is used because it situates new leadership models as structures based on consent, reflecting tacit traditions in education alongside ideas of leadership in other settings, including emerging industries. The aim is to celebrate achievements, encourage engagement opportunities, and add to the problem-solving knowledge-base. However, issues and problems in participatory engagement are also considered, and the borderlines between consensus (collective assent and agreement) and ‘dissensus’ (widespread, serious, disagreement) are examined critically.
The contributors offer a range of alternative perspectives on leadership, reflecting the diverse forms and ways of working practised in different national higher educational contexts and cultural settings. The volume incorporates a variety of approaches and points of view, including stories of leadership and change, innovation projects and case studies, key interviews and insights, and collective team writing.
Table of Contents:
Series Editor Preface
Consensual Leadership and Higher Education Work: Introduction to the Book, Its Contexts and Concerns, Lynne Gornall (University of South Wales, UK), Brychan Thomas (University of South Wales, UK) and Lucy Sweetman (Bath Spa University, UK)
Part I: Co-operation
1. Co-operation and Participatory Leadership: Building Trust to Connect Professional Bodies and Universities in Nigeria, Laguo Livingstone Gilbert (Independent Educational Consultant, Nigeria)
2. Insights from Early Career Academics: Making Time for Working Together in Finland, Oili-Helena Ylijoki (University of Tampere, Finland) and Lea Henriksson (University of Tampere, Finland)
3. Dilemmas for Managers in Departmental Relationships: Some Research Observations from Spain, Marita Sánchez-Moreno and Manon Toussaint (University of Seville, Spain)
4. Co-operative Approaches to Leading and Learning: Ideas for Democratic Innovation from the UK and Beyond, Tom Woodin (UCL Institute of Education, UK)
Part II: Collaboration
5. Stories of Leading and Being Led: Developing Collaborative Relationships in an English Research-Intensive University, Alan Floyd (Open University, UK) and Dilly Fung (UCL Institute of Education, UK)
6. Research Leaders and Student Collaborators: Insights from Canada, Sandra Acker (University of Toronto, Canada), Anne Wagner (Nipissing University, Canada) and Michelle McGinn (Brock University, Canada)
7. A Paradoxical Blend of Scientific Authority and Distributed Leadership: Exploring HE Research Collaborations in Spain, Julián López-Yáñez and Mariana Altopiedi (University of Seville, Spain)
8. Networks, Alliances and Emergent Leadership : A Large-Scale Innovation Project in UK Distance Education, Roger Cannon (Independent Researcher, UK)
Part III: Partnership
9. Decolonizing International Collaborative Work: Creating New Grammars for Academic Partnerships in Chile, Ana Luisa Muñoz-García (Universidad Andrés Bello, Chile) and Carolina Guzmán-Valenzuela (University of Chile, Chile)
10. New Leadership in Commercial Organisations: Self-Management in UK International Company Settings, Paul Thomas (Independent Researcher, UK)
11. International Connections: Personal Stories and Cultural Contexts in University Partnerships from China and Beyond, Brian Denman (University of New England, Australia), Yumiko Hada (Hiroshima University, Japan), Qiang Liu (Beijing Normal University, China) and David Turner (Beijing Normal University, China)
12. Valuing European Partnerships: Memories of Cross-National Leadership in UK Higher Education Projects, Lynne Gornall (University of South Wales, UK), Brychan Thomas (University of South Wales, UK) and Lyndon Murphy (Cardiff Metropolitan University, UK
13. Playing Together: What Can Academics in Higher Education Learn from Musicians About Creative Leadership and Collaboration? Lynne Gornall (University of South Wales, UK) and Daniel Bickerton (Cardiff University and Leeds College of Music, UK)
References
Index
About the Author :
Lynne Gornall is Leader of the Working Lives Research Team at the University of South Wales, UK.
Brychan Thomas is Visiting Professor in Innovation Policy and Joint Leader of the Centre for Leadership, Innovation and Management Behaviours (CLIMB) at the University of South Wales Business School, UK.
Lucy Sweetman is Senior Lecturer in Creative Writing at Bath Spa University, UK and a freelance writer and consultant.
Review :
Highly relevant to academics working in managerial positions within universities ... A valuable contribution providing well-researched support for the key elements of consensual leadership and a timely reminder of the value of the approach.
[In Exploring Consensual Leadership in Higher Education] each of the contributors offers insights into how the process of consensual leadership operates within a particular institutional and cultural setting. Together they build a persuasive and diversely documented argument in favor of a democratically grounded and culturally nuanced approach to intellectual leadership through dialogue, negotiation, and debate…This book will be of value to students in educational leadership, researchers, and teachers who have an interest in leadership based on cooperation, collaboration, and partnership that transcends the traditional boundaries of higher education.
This book delightfully and skilfully breaks the mould of writing about leadership in higher education. It treats leadership as a relational concept rather than a set of management techniques. Rather than critiquing existing (and all too often failing) university leadership, it seeks boldly to develop new and exciting appropriate approaches. It does all of this this by drawing extensively on real life empirical examples from around the globe. This superbly articulated and structured volume constitutes an invaluable addition to new thinking on old problems.
Offers a much needed alternative to management, managerialism, and neo-liberal approaches to higher education leadership. The novelty of the book is not only its approach to academic work as both creative and consensual, but also its emphasis on the different ways cooperation, collaboration, and partnership are practiced across the world. Chapters from outside the Anglo-American centre offer invaluable knowledge about uneven power relations and geopolitics of knowledge in collaboration stemming both from colonial histories and present day hegemonies. One can only hope that the book will be read by higher education leaders.
A magnificent book in so many different ways. Not much is known about ‘working together' in higher education and this book delivers in spades with new ideas in every chapter. The book as a whole is diverse, innovative, comprehensive, forward looking, scholarly, grounded, dilemma exposing, critical, career-covering, nitty-gritty-like, impact-oriented, and downright impressive in its scope and imagination. A must read for anyone interested in higher education.
